Austin, TX band, Explosions in the Sky are gearing up for a kaboom, kapow, bangin’ April. With their Take Care, Take Care, Take Care album on the way on April 26th, and a supporting tour (including a couple of dates with Arcade Fire) kicking off on April Fools' Day, the band won’t have time to joke around.

This is a cool concept band. There is no “frontman” per se, no leader, no main songwriter. They all pitch in, and they all seem to get along damn fine. The band makes their unique sound with three electric guitars, drums, the occasional bass line, and enough effects pedals to make any grown guitar fanboy weep with excitement and jump up and down like a 5-year-old on parade day. It makes for a heady, atmospheric, drifting-through-the-clouds, Eno-esque, intellectual, almost symphonic sound. Delicioso.

Believe it or not, Explosions first fired up their guitars bass & drums as a band almost 12 years ago when Mark Smith (guitar), Munaf Rayani (guitar), and Michael James (guitar & bass) - three childhood friends from Midland, TX - joined forces with the newly TX’ed drummer Chris Hrasky. The band was originally named Breaker Morant after the movie (they’re all film fans) by the same name, but later switched it up to their current moniker when they caught the sights and sounds of fireworks exploding overhead on the night they played their first set. FUN FACT: the band gave away almost all copies (300) of their first album, How Strange, Innocence. Things broke for these guys when one of their friends from band The American Analog Set sent a recording of one of Explosions’ live shows to label Temporary Residence.

If you haven’t caught this band online, or on the radio, there’s a good chance you’ve heard them on TV or on the big screen, as they wrote the soundtrack for 2004’s Friday Night Lights and have had songs in Shopgirl, All the Real Girls, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. They’ve had several songs featured on the TV show Friday Night Lights, and the uber-popular One Tree Hill.

Their label is being stingy with the tracks, but they were kind enough to drop a new one, “Trembling Hands”, on us. When we first listened, the consensus was “Whoa! There are vocals!” Albeit, it’s more like punctuating grunts, or cheers, but vocals all the same. This is a pretty rockin’ track all in all, and Chris is pounding the skins like a man on fire. Of course, there are the usual guitars too.

The album art is insane! We rarely (maybe once or twice, though not necessarily in a good way) mention album art, but this Esteban Rey designed artwork is housed (REALLY, it folds out into a house) in, as Temporary Residence describes it, “a 10-panel quadruple gatefold cardboard jacket, with an enormous 18-panel full-color double-sided poster, and a full-color double-sided postcard - then all of that is tucked neatly inside of a full-color double-sided slipcase!” The vinyl (3 color options) and CD versions are the same setup, only smaller for the CD. Reportedly, there’s a collectible engraving on Side D. Check out the coolio pic below.

We’re looking forward to this hitting the shelves. You can pre-order the disc on Explosions in the Sky’s website now.

Take Care, Take Care, Take Care Track Listing

1. Last Known Surroundings
2. Human Qualities
3. Trembling Hands
4. Be Comfortable, Creature
5. Postcard From 1952
6. Let Me Back In

Explosions In The Sky 2011 Tour:
Apr 1 - Oxford, MS @ The Lyric
Apr 3 - Charlotte, NC @ Amos’ Southend
Apr 4 - Richmond, VA @ The National
Apr 6 - New York, NY @ Radio City Music Hall with Low and Eluvium (piano only set)
Apr 8 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
Apr 9 - Columbus, OH @ Outland Live
Apr 10 - Columbia, MO @ The Blue Note
Apr 30 - Los Angeles, CA — Hollywood Forever Cemetery
May 1 - Oakland, CA — Fox Theater
May 3 - Austin, TX @ The Backyard (w/ Arcade Fire) * SOLD OUT
May 4 - Houston, TX @ Cynthia Woods Pavillion (w/ Arcade Fire)
May 15 - Edinburgh, UK @ HMV Picturehouse
May 16 - Dublin, Ireland @ Vicar St
May 17 - Manchester, UK @ Academy
May 19 - London, UK @ The Roundhouse * SOLD OUT
May 20 - Paris, France @ Bataclan
May 22 - Berlin, Germany @ Postbahnhof
May 23 - Koln, Germany @ Essigfabrik
May 24 - Brussels, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique
May 25 - Amsterdam, Holland @ Paradiso
May 27 - Primavera Sound Festival
June 9-12 (exact date TBA) - Manchester, TN @ Bonnaroo
Aug 11 - Olso, Norway @ Oya Festival
Aug 13 - Gothenburg, SWE @ Way Out West Festival
Aug 19 - Brecon Beacons, UK @ Green Man Festival